The government, the business community, and the labor community held a three-party government-labor-management meeting, and agreed in principle to create an environment in which personnel costs can be appropriately passed on to prices in order to realize wage increases for small and medium-sized enterprises. The government has formulated guidelines on how to pass on costs and encourages the business community to take action.
The first Government-Labor-Management Meeting in about eight years was attended by Prime Minister Kishida and relevant Cabinet ministers, as well as Keidanren Chairman Tokura from the business community and Chairman Yoshino of the Japan Government, Japan Labor Federation.
At the meeting, they shared the status of the spring negotiations, which reached an intensive response day on the 8th, and shared the recognition that it is necessary to spread the moves of wage increases by large firms to wage negotiations at small and medium-sized enterprises in the future.
As a concrete measure, we agreed in principle to create an environment in which small and medium-sized enterprises can appropriately pass on labor costs, which are labor costs incurred in the production of products, to prices when they conduct transactions with large companies that are prime contractors.
In response to this, the government conducted a fact-finding survey on the handling of "labor costs," compiled guidelines on how to pass on price increases, and encouraged the business community to take action through industry groups.
Prime Minister Kishida stated, "Wage increases are the most important issue for the new capitalism, and we will mobilize all policies to improve the environment, and I would like to ask for your cooperation in wage negotiations this spring, which is a turning point for a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution."
In addition, he announced his intention to start discussions on a policy for further raising the minimum wage after achieving an hourly wage of 1000,<> yen from this summer.